In Retrospect
by jacedesbff
Summary: Everyone thought Darcy and Bucky had long since met. Their soulmarks would say otherwise. It is also the story of how Bucky rediscovers himself as a protector.


In retrospect, it made sense that everyone in the Tower thought that Darcy and Bucky had already met. They had been living in the same building for four months, they had all the same friends, they attended the same movie nights. Honestly, it wasn't brain surgery. Of course the two of them had met.

Right?

Wrong.

oOo

Darcy was in Arizona when Steve brought Bucky into the Avengers. Her uncle had passed way and she went home for the funeral. Then her sister graduated high school, her mom got the flu, one thing led to another, and pretty soon, Darcy's quick visit home turned into three and a half weeks. Ergo, when everyone was introduced to Steve's best friend, Darcy wasn't around.

When Darcy came back to New York, the team was operating out of Tony's California home for a few weeks. With the addition of Bucky and Sam, they all agreed that they needed some field practice as a team before a real crisis put civilian lives at stake. Remote spaces in which to unleash the Hulk were easier to come by in places like Nevada and Arizona, and it was easier to reach those from California. So Bucky wasn't around for Darcy's first few weeks back.

Two days after the Avengers transplanted themselves from the west coast back to the east, Jane headed back to Tromso to follow up on what had turned out to be her very fruitful visit from the year before. Darcy, of course, went to help her. Now perhaps it could be expected that in those two days Darcy and Bucky would have met. Except that Bucky wasn't the most social person in the Tower, more prone to hiding in his apartment, and Darcy was preparing her crazy scientist for a two-week trip abroad. Again, no meeting.

When Darcy and Jane finally got back and everyone was actually in the Tower, together, for more than a few days, it was decided to have a movie night. Steve still hadn't seen Star Wars (the original, as Tony insisted that he wouldn't sully Captain America's purity with the prequel trilogy), and it was universally agreed to be a great bonding night film. This was naturally the perfect time for Bucky and Darcy to meet.

Except they didn't.

Overall, Bucky was doing much better than anyone had expected. The biggest aids to his recovery were Steve, who refused to give up on his friend, and Professor Xavier, who helped Bucky unlock parts of himself that were just hidden and not truly erased. There were still bad days, though. And that night was one of them.

Not wanting to make Steve uncomfortable, no one mentioned Bucky's absence as the former Winter Soldier took a breather up in the apartment he shared with Steve. Bucky assured his best friend that he needed some time alone and to go hang out with their teammates. Steve did so, albeit reluctantly, and had a great time despite his initial reluctance. Darcy was one of his favorite people in this new century, outgoing, always willing to catch him up on popular culture without making him feel stupid, curvaceous – and the two of them had a great time reconnecting while hanging out with Darth Vader, Iron Man and the rest of the team.

Weeks passed. Darcy worked with Jane on the laboratory floors that Bucky avoided like the plague. Bucky spent copious amounts of time in the gym, which Darcy insisted was a foreign country to which she did not have a visa. There were a couple of team dinners during that time, one of which Darcy didn't attend because an old college roommate was in town and they went out to dinner together, the other one missed by Bucky because he was upstate visiting Xavier's School for the Gifted.

So, no, at no point did the two individuals in question meet. Which came as a great surprise to pretty much everyone except for Bucky and Darcy when later events unfolded.

oOo

"So Natasha, you had to have absolutely loved the fact that Clint printed your title on your collarbone," noted Darcy with a smile.

The Black Widow in question shot Darcy a look, to which Darcy just beamed back at her. It wasn't that Darcy wasn't as wary as everyone else was when it came to Natasha, it's just that Darcy figured someone needed to treat the woman like a normal person. Natasha hadn't caused her bodily harm yet, so Darcy figured Clint's soulmate was okay with it.

Clint smirked. "Oh, yeah, about as much as I loved her branding me an assassin."

Given that Natasha's soulmark was "Seriously? The Black Widow?" and Clint's asked "So, Legolas? Are you going to kill me or what?", these were reasonable statements to make.

The discussion topic that night was soulmarks, obviously. While Natasha was a relatively private person, her soulmark was printed on her chest. She used cover-up when in public, but in the tower it was pretty hard to miss. Clint's was masked most of the time he was out and about because it was in just the right place for his arm guard to cover it. He rarely wore long sleeves at home, though, where it was there for all to see.

"My nickname was Legolas years before Orlando Bloom made the guy popular," Clint elaborated. "I spent my entire childhood trying to explain to elementary school kids who Tolkien was. Good times let me assure you. Carnies were a little more aware, though – big Hobbit fans."

Darcy got a kick out of the fact that the two assassins were soulmates. Like either of them belonged with anyone else. Duh.

They had already touched on Jane and Thor's – everyone loved that Jane had implored Thor not to be dead. Thor, of course, had grown up assuming that these words meant he would meet his soulmate on the battlefield, but was certainly happy with how things ended up. Steve explained that his soulmark, "Captain, I have some papers for you to sign", was a big part of the reason that he had such faith he would get into the Army.

"I had to be in the service to become a captain, right?" he asked with a smile.

While Maria wasn't there to answer questions about Steve's words to her, he assured them that his words, "Whatever you say, ma'am", had been a pleasure for her to sport all of her life.

"What about you, Darcy?" Clint asked. "You haven't met your soulmate yet. What are you waiting to hear?"

Darcy snort-laughed and pulled up her shirt, exposing her abdomen, across which was written in huge blocky letters, "GET DOWN!"

The group broke into laughter.

"Bikinis are a conversation starter, that's for sure," laughed Darcy as she lowered her top. "Hey, I figure I need to be ready to act at all times, right? Never know when my life might be in danger."

"Well, it'd be scarier if they _weren't_ said in a life-threatening situation," noted Tony drily.

"Thanks, Tony. I've never heard that one before," said Darcy with an eye roll. "Because the carnal implications never occurred to drunk frat guys."

More laughter.

Conversation drifted in the way that conversations do.

Three days later, everyone remembered that night and what was said. How could they not?

oOo

Darcy was looking for Thor. Being the millennial that she was, Darcy had become the Avengers' _de facto_ social media coordinator, a fact noted and appreciated by many. Which meant that since Mjolnir was trending online, it fell to Darcy to address some of the stranger inquiries and theories that were popping up. Hence her looking for Thor.

So it was that Darcy was outside the gym when what felt like an explosion rocked the Avengers Tower. She was thrown hard against the wall and collapsed in a heap. As she struggled to climb up using the same wall as traction, she heard someone run out of the gym and shout, "GET DOWN!"

She dropped back to the floor, unable to see who had yelled those words at her. She heard him crouch behind her and felt his hand on her hip.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She couldn't respond, still trying to catch her breath.

"ARE YOU OKAY?!" he demanded, and she heard rather than saw that while his words were directed at her, his attention was off in the distance. As she tried to clear her thoughts, she figured he was looking for threats.

Darcy managed to hold up her right hand in a shaky "ok" symbol and the mystery man – her soulmate?! – awkwardly patted the hip his hand was on.

"Good," he said as he stood up.

She rolled over to look up at him. She couldn't let this man get away without seeing who he was, but she couldn't quite focus…

"I have to go clear the floor. Get in the gym and take cover!" Without another word, her soulmate (still rating a ?! in her mind) shot down the hall as Darcy blinked her eyes some more and fought to see through the haze of smoke. All she could see as he disappeared around the corner was shoulder-length brown hair and a physique that clearly belonged in the Avengers' gym.

The Avengers' gym…

Oh, yeah – she was supposed to take cover in there.

Okay, she reasoned to herself, as she crawled into the room filled with state-of-the-art workout equipment, still unable to stand, clearly she had a concussion. Hopefully that was it, though. She could mostly breathe, there didn't seem to be any blood and while she was sore all over, nothing felt broken. Should a concussion hurt this much, though?

From her position on her hands and knees, she looked around the gym, blinking owlishly. Seriously, she had to pull herself together.

She grabbed on to a Stairmaster and pulled herself up, looking around.

The women's' locker room! No windows, interior room. Yeah, she could make it there. Staggering across the room like a drunk, feeling yet another explosion what felt like a few floors down, Darcy made it into the locker room and sat down against the door as it closed behind her.

Great. Not only did she not know who her soulmate was, but she hadn't been able to get out a word to him, so he didn't even know to look for her after this…whatever…was over.

Wait! Darcy's sluggish brain tried to bubble through her concussive haze. This guy came from the Avengers' gym. That had to mean that he was the type to follow up with potentially injured bystanders, right? But…that wasn't the most important thing…

HE WAS IN THE AVENGERS' GYM.

Wow, she must have knocked her head really hard.

He wasn't Steve, Clint, Tony, Bruce or Thor. Who was he then? It wasn't like they gave out visitor's passes.

Just as it was on the tip of tongue to figure out who else it could be, another blast rocked the floor.

JANE!

Darcy reached down to pull her phone out of her pocket only to find the faceplate cracked in half. She tried to turn it on, but apparently that kind of break wasn't one that her beloved Samsung Galaxy Note II could overcome. Damn. Tony was going to use this an excuse to make her take a StarkPhone. He didn't have a stylus, though! Or his phone didn't. Or something…

She blinked. Jane! She needed to find out about Jane!

Darcy stood up…and vertigo made her sit right back down. She sighed. It was probably for the best. She hated it when those idiot girls in movies rushed into danger when there were clearly others better suited to be fighting the battles. They only put themselves in danger, therefore necessitating one of the heroes to come to their rescue. Yeah, she was not gonna be one of those girls.

So she would sit here. With her concussion. And no phone. Here she was in the most modern building on earth and she had no way to find out what was happening to it. Fine. But she was going to move away from the swinging door. Again, not a dumbass.

As she reached the archway leading to the showers, she heard a voice.

"Anybody here?!" a man's voice called out.

Was it her soulmate? Coming back to check on her? Or was it some crazed terrorist?

She moved to hide on the other side of the shower wall but peeked out just as the guy who was clearly her soulmate came through the door she had just crawled away from.

"Wow," she said. "You're even better looking from the front."

Yep. She was concussed.

Her soulmate – did this guy have a name? – blinked and pulled up short.

"You?" he asked.

She pushed herself onto her knees and as she leaned against the wall she reached down to expose her stomach.

"Huh," was his response.

They stared at each other for a long moment, until their gaze was broken by the sound of gunfire not far away.

Darcy's head jerked towards the sound and she groaned.

"Are you okay?" asked the still-unnamed incredibly hot stranger who used the Avengers' gym.

"Concussion," she moaned. "What's happening?"

"Someone's blowing shit up. I cleared the floor when I heard them coming this way. I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Aw, my soulmate cares!" Darcy said distractedly.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that," hot guy mumbled as he grabbed a towel and wet it to put on her forehead.

"What for?" Darcy asked as the man headed over to her. "You're hot. You seem to be a good guy – I mean, you could have just left me –"

"I'm the Winter Soldier," he cut her off. "No one's called me a good guy for a very long time."

"Huh," Darcy heard herself say. She blinked. "Steve's friend. That explains it, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," he said as he leaned down and put the wet towel against Darcy's forehead.

"I mean why you were in the gym. Do you want me to call you Winter?" she asked as she smiled somewhat blurrily up at him.

His smile was cut off as they heard someone – or ones – burst into the door from the hall to the gym.

"Check everywhere! He's got to be here!" an accented voice demanded.

"Three of them," Winter (as she was going to call him until he told her differently) said in a low voice whispered into her ear. "You – towel closet." And he pulled out a scary-looking gun with one hand and a wickedly-sharp knife with the other from places she chose not to contemplate before edging to listen through the exit door to the gym.

He gave her a significant look and she moved to the specified hiding place.

As she climbed in amongst the clean white towels, Darcy heard the sounds of what sounded like an epic battle out in the gym. She had heard multiple stories about the Winter Soldier and as she listened to the muffled fight, she hoped that the tales were true. She hadn't had a chance to figure out if they were platonic or romantic, if or how she could love him, or how they were meant for each other, not to mention the fact that Steve would be devastated if anything happened to his best friend.

Abruptly, the sounds of the fight ceased and Darcy froze, afraid to breathe.

She heard the locker room door open.

"Um, soulmate…girl?"

Heh. She hadn't told him her name either.

"A little help, Winter?" she called. She really did not want to get out of her squished hiding spot on her own as she knew it would just hurt her head more.

"Or Bucky," he commented as he opened the door and went to help her out. "That works, too."

"Darcy," she said as she emerged from the towels. "But soulmate girl isn't, you know, bad." As she put her two feet on the floor outside the closet, her hand in his, Darcy looked into Bucky's eyes. "Are you okay?"

He gave her a strange look. "I'm fine, doll. You're the one I'm worried about."

"Hey, give me 24 hours and someone to make sure I don't sleep too hard and I'm sure I'll be fine."

With that, Darcy leaned over and retched all over the floor.

"Oh, yeah," said Bucky, leaning over to catch Darcy's hair and hold it out of her face, "you're aces, dollface."

Darcy leaned against Bucky, her head against his stomach and just took a few moments to breathe. Her hands snaked up and went around his waist and she held on for dear life.

Unbeknownst to Darcy, this was the first time since the 1940s that Bucky felt like somebody needed him. For decades he had been the tool that hurt people. Of late, he had been the tag-along best friend who needed a babysitter to make sure he didn't lose his marbles and go over the cliff of crazy, as Steve's mom used to call it.

Not only did someone need him, but his _soulmate_ needed him. If this was the Darcy that worked with the scientist types in the lab, she wasn't usually a damsel in distress type. But right now she was willing to be vulnerable in front of him. She was willing to need him.

Even more than meeting his soulmate had done, the reality that his soulmate _needed _him knocked Bucky's worldview as surely as the explosions had rocked the tower. Because he suddenly remembered, not just in vague terms, but _emotionally_, what it was like to be needed, and to be able to be there for someone.

Bucky sank to his knees, cradling Darcy in his arms as he did so. He stroked her hair as she took deep breaths. Darcy let herself relax into his embrace, feeling safe, not caring that she was fairly miserable at the moment.

Unwilling to move, the two of them stayed there for several minutes until Jarvis's static-y voice came back on.

"Sergeant Barnes? Miss Lewis? Are you okay?"

Still holding Darcy in his lap, Bucky nodded and said, "I'm good, Jarvis. Darcy needs a doctor. She's got a pretty severe concussion. She needs a CAT scan."

Darcy gave an unintelligible protest from where she lay.

"Come on, beautiful, you threw up and you're in horrible pain. This could be worse than a simple concussion. We need to make sure."

Another mumble, this one sounding like a question.

"Of course you're beautiful, doll. You know that. How could you not?"

Darcy's response was to wrap her arms around him more tightly, and Bucky was stunned to feel tears prick his eyes.

She needed him.

oOo

Bucky listened intently every step of the way from the gym to the medical wing Stark had set up once he realized both how often it would be needed and how much pretty much every member of the team hated hospitals. Medical was six floors below the gym and the going was much slower than Bucky wanted, particularly since Darcy was getting less coherent and he was becoming much more worried.

By the time he finally burst through the entrance door, the former soldier was pretty sure that the battle was over. He only cared so far as it impacted his soulmate, as he didn't want her life in danger nor did he want to have to take the time to take out any obstacles.

"I NEED A DOCTOR!" he yelled as he rushed Darcy into the examination area.

"What happened?" asked a man in a white coat firmly but calmly as he hurried over. The doctor led Bucky to the examination area, leaving behind the few stunned-looking civilians who had already made it to medical. It was early in the morning, but more than a few SI employees were already there when the building was attacked.

Bucky explained as he put Darcy carefully onto the examination bed, a much nicer one than would be found in any traditional hospital.

"We were one floor above the initial blast and she was thrown against the wall. We thought she had a concussion, but it's gotta be worse than that."

The doctor was already examining Darcy's pupil responsiveness and other vital signs.

"It looks like she may have a cranial contusion or hemorrhage."

"What does that mean?" demanded Bucky.

"It means I need to do a CAT scan to see if she has a bruise or bleeding in her brain."

Bucky tried to breathe.

At some point in their conversation, a competent-looking nurse had appeared at the doctor's shoulder.

"I'll prep it right away, Doctor," she said and disappeared without another word. Bucky was good with that. He liked competent people.

"All right," said the doctor calmly as he got out his cell phone. "If you will wheel her into the next room, Lucille will get her ready for the CAT scan while I call Margaret Yancey over at NYU Medical. I can send a chopper and have her here in less than 30 minutes if she's available. I'm good at neuro, but she's the best."

Bucky did what he was told and the next hour both flew and crawled by, seemingly simultaneously. One moment it felt like it was taking an eternity for them to get Darcy into the CAT scan machine. Then it felt like he lost time while she was getting the scan and that 20 minutes had just vanished.

Steve had explained to him once how the Avengers' medical set-up worked. Tony had a rotation of seven of the best doctors in New York on permanent rotation. Each was noted for their abilities in multiple medical areas, all of which had to include trauma. They were paid very, very generously for working on the same day each week and being semi on-call for emergencies. The "semi" being respectful of the fact that these doctors had hospital responsibilities and private practices around the city and that the Avengers couldn't be the only thing they had on their plates.

Steve shared that when Tony told him about this arrangement, Steve had questioned the ability to find doctors who fit the bill and were interested.

"Are you kidding?" replied Tony. "I pay them enough to take care of their medical school loans in a fraction of the time it would otherwise have taken, and most of the time they're here, they don't have patients. Most of them have published more in the last year than in the previous ten. Not to mention that it looks fantastic on their CVs – not just theirs, but the hospitals and practices they work at as well. In return we get the best medical staff east of the Mississippi. Trust me, Steve – this is a win-win for everybody."

Stark Industries also had a medical office manager, a physician's assistant and two nurses on permanent staff. Everyone on the medical staff except for the contracted physicians saw other SI employees as patients during the week, saving both the company and its employees large amounts of money. It was of course stated in writing that any employee appointment could unceremoniously be terminated or cancelled if made necessary by the needs of any Avenger.

There weren't many places in the world that could maintain such a facility. Tony Stark could and would and the Avengers' lives had been safer and calmer as a result.

This was the first time that Bucky got to really see the SI Medical Facility in full combat mode, as it were. When calamity struck, notably as this one struck _the actual tower_, any available on-call physicians were asked to come in. If they were already on staff at a trauma center or otherwise engaged, they were excused, but available or not, each was required to send a text to the officer manager stating whether or not they could come in.

As the majority of injured persons were actually within the building, three doctors showed up in addition to Dr. Crysla, who was there when Bucky brought Darcy in, and Dr. Yancey, who came at his request. The entire medical staff was kept busy with all of the traumas that might be expected after a high-rise was bombed. Some patients were life-flighted to other hospitals, some were triaged to a well-stocked but little-used waiting area, and others were actively being treated.

None of the Avengers suffered any life-threatening illnesses, although Clint had a second-degree burn on his right arm and Steve had a laceration on his stomach that would have required dozens of stitches if it weren't for the serum that sealed up his skin magically fast. Without question, Darcy was their biggest concern.

As Bucky paced in a panic, unable to communicate much to anyone besides the fact that Darcy was hurt and that he was the one who brought her in, Doctors Yancey and Crysla determined that Darcy had a small intercranial bleed, which essentially meant a cut on her brain. They met with the Avengers and explained that while scary, her injury should resolve itself quickly and that they were putting her in one of their patient rooms and would be monitoring her very closely.

"Is that enough?" pressed Bucky, almost belligerent in his worry. "What else should we be doing?!"

The rest of the Avengers threw the former Winter Soldier sideways glances. They didn't want to incite his warrior response by doing anything that could be construed as a direct challenge, particularly when he was in this frame of mind, but seriously – what was going on here?

"She could barely speak when I brought her in!" All of Bucky's fear and worry was spilling out. "And you just want to stick her in a bed and watch her? What kind of hacks are you?"

"Bucky –" Steve put his hand on his friend in an attempt to calm him.

"No, Steve!" Bucky took a deep breath. He knew that the doctors or even his new team might try to sedate him if he didn't get himself under control.

"No, Steve," and his voice was calmer, "this is my soulmate we're talking about here. I'm not taking any chances."

The room went dead silent. The noises from outside the room suddenly echoed through the door.

"She's your what?" asked Steve almost in a whisper.

"My soulmate," answered Bucky in tortured voice. He raised his t-shirt, the same one he was working out in when everything started, and showed the team his soulmark. "'Better looking from the front'? It's Darcy, Steve. It's Darcy." He dropped his shirt back down. "And I can't let her down. She needs me. She…" he choked on the words, "…she needs me."

"Mr. Barnes," Dr. Crysla spoke up. All of the members of the medical staff knew about Bucky's history. They had to. "I promise you that we are giving Darcy the best level of care possible. We will keep you apprised of everything that we do. We will let you know what we are doing and why. I can't guarantee any outcome ever, but I can tell you that we know what we're doing and we are going to do our very best for her. Okay?"

Bucky turned the full force of his gaze on the doctor, who to his credit did not back down. There was a reason the man was one of the doctors Tony selected for this job.

Bucky relaxed infinitesimally and the tension level in the room took a noticeable hit. Clint and Natasha stood down to a certain degree, Steve's fists unclenched, Tony blinked and Bruce took a deep, calming breath.

Dr. Yancey spoke up.

"It's a small bleed, Mr. Barnes. We take anything in the brain seriously, but to go in and start messing around in there would likely do more harm than good. Monitoring her while giving her body time to heal on its own is the wisest course of action. Also –," the doctor seemed to be contemplating something while she looked at the assassin. "I don't feel an instinct to push further into this. That's not science, and it's certainly not something I would ever tell the AMA, but one of the reasons I'm good at what I do is I listen to those instincts. If they tell me to dig, I dig. If they tell me to wait, I wait. Even so, the decision to wait is first and foremost rooted in science and the experience of two very competent physicians. We're going to ask you to trust us to do the best we can."

Bucky nodded, understanding the risk she was taking by telling him this. He was grateful, though. Any time someone trusted him enough to tell him truths instead of statistics, it made him feel like a person, and this woman had just done that.

"I'd like to be with her."

Dr. Crysla smiled and said, "I'll take you to her room." He nodded to the rest of the people in the room and opened the door to the muted craziness to be found in the rest of the center.

Bucky went out followed by the two doctors who shut the door behind them and the Avengers were left alone.

"Bucky and Double-D?" Tony broke the silence. "Didn't see that one coming."

"I'm going to recommend that you never call her that in front of Bucky, Tony," Bruce noted. "Do you really want the Winter Soldier hearing you talk about his soulmate's bra size?"

Tony opened his mouth to make a retort but stopped. Bruce had a point and Tony wasn't an idiot.

"The 'get down' command makes a lot of sense given the circumstances," noted Clint and the others nodded.

"Steve," Natasha began and paused, trying to phrase what she needed to say as tactfully as possible.

Steve sighed.

"Keep an eye out for Darcy?" he asked not just to Natasha but to the team in general.

"You're the best one to watch out for her – and him," said Bruce.

"If he ever did anything to her… I promise all of you that he would take himself out before I even got close. He wouldn't be able to live with himself." Steve's voice was sad.

"You're not just watching out for her, Steve. You're watching out for him, too," continued Natasha. "This already looks like a wonderful thing for him. Let's just do our best to make sure it stays that way. I mean, they'll have to get used to each other like any couple does. We just need to help with the extra layer that his past brings to the table."

"You won't be alone, man. We're all here with you," Clint added.

Steve looked around at his team and nodded. They could do this.

oOo

Bucky sat by Darcy's bedside and waited for her to wake up. He still wasn't sure that she deserved to be stuck with him, but he was going to be there until the universe that declared them soulmates showed him a sign that he should leave. As it was right now, his presence was needed.

When he and Steve were young, before Steve got bigger and Bucky got thrown from a train, the two of them spent many an occasion speculating about their future soulmates. They figured Steve got a pushy broad, or at least one who didn't put up with any of his guff. Bucky said that Steve was just hoping his girl would look like Miss Llewellyn, their elementary school librarian. Steve's response was that he would be okay with that.

Without question, Bucky's soulmark was a confidence builder. His girl thought he was a looker both coming and going. She was also willing to say it out loud, which he and Steve decided meant that she had gumption. Steve insisted she would need to it to put up with James Buchanan Barnes. Looking down at Darcy lying in state-of-the-art hospital bed, Bucky was very, very grateful that his girl was indeed possessed of a great deal of gumption.

Over the next several hours, the rest of the Avengers, in varying configurations, came in to sit and spend time with Bucky and Darcy. Aside from providing support and companionship, they also updated him on the goings-on outside the patient room. It turned out that the rebuilding-itself version of HYDRA wanted their asset back. Since Bucky only left the towers to work with the team either in practice or to curb disaster, it had been decided that the most controlled place to make a play was in Bucky's living space, thereby necessitating a full-scale attack on Stark Tower.

Armed with code words that HYDRA didn't know Professor Xavier had already removed, there had been strategically planned and planted explosives, diversions into computer server rooms, random hostage taking – all in an effort to draw attention away from the move on Bucky in the gym. Only three of the planned eight men had made it to the assigned task, the others stopped by either Tony, Clint or Natasha. Those three were not among the survivors of the campaign.

Ultimately, 16 HYDRA members and 13 civilians were killed, eight of the latter perishing directly in explosions, the rest during the battle. The press was full court and seemed to be focusing on how Stark's medical wing had saved the lives of 12 people who might likely have died had such advanced aid not been so close at hand. In the absence of clear motive (which the Avengers certainly weren't offering), it was this that the reporters cottoned onto.

Who understood the vagaries of the modern press?

All Bucky took note of was that they had been after him and people had died because of it. He was tempted to believe this was the universe telling him it was time to go, but Steve put the kibosh on that.

"You didn't bring them here, Buck. They brought themselves. Just like they froze you, and brainwashed you, and treated your brain like a chew toy. /iThis isn't on you./i And I know Darcy well enough to know that if you disappear while she's out, she'll kick your ass when she wakes up."

That made Bucky smile. He'd only had a handful of words with his soulmate and even he knew that was the case. That was another thing his team did during their visits. They told him stories of Darcy. How she tased Thor (that was never gonna get old), how she wasn't intimidated by Stark and talked fearlessly to Natasha. How she teased Steve about the tightness of his t-shirts while teaching him about the convoluted world of pop culture he had missed over 70 years on ice. Bucky learned that his girl had moxie. He liked moxie.

Now if only she would wake up so he could tell her so.

In the meantime, Bucky simply held her hand and waited. He could be patient.

oOo

Darcy opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was Bucky sleeping in a chair beside her bed. She didn't immediately recognize what she saw around her, but the smell of a hospital is the same pretty much everywhere.

"I knew you'd be here," she croaked out and Bucky's eyes popped open instantly.

He sat up with a question in his eyes.

"I knew you'd be here," she repeated, her voice gaining traction after the last day and a half of non-use. Bucky reached over and picked up a cup of water from her bedside table. He handed it to her and she took a long drink before continuing.

"'Get down' – my soulmark," she said. "You're my protector. That's how I've always thought of you. From the moment we met, you've watched out for me." She gave him a tired smile. "I knew you'd be here."

He reached out and took her hand in his.

"I wouldn't be anywhere else, doll."

oOo

Darcy meant what she said. Growing up, she chose to interpret her soulmark as a sign that when she needed it most, she would have someone there to watch over her. Young, old, male, female, romantic, platonic – it didn't matter. The universe was sending her a guardian. That faith was tested when her soulmate remained absent during the Destroyer's attack on Puento Antiguo, but eventually she decided that as she had saved herself just fine, it made sense that New Mexico hadn't been the time and place.

This, though? Gravely injured, alone, under attack – and there he was. She could see in his eyes what it meant for her to say that she needed him. Even without that, she could have guessed. She may not have met him, but you couldn't be a member of the Avengers family and not know Bucky's story. For him to be needed, to get be a rescuer for once – yeah, she knew.

As she looked up at her soulmate, Darcy knew that they had a long road ahead of them. Not only were they in (or affiliated with) the Avengers, but he was who he was with the background that he had. This wasn't going to be easy. But as much as the universe had sent him to her, it had done the reverse, as well. She was in his corner now, and they were going to save and defend each other.

They might be in it for the long haul, but it was a journey they were taking together. So bring it on.

"_Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning_." - Winston Churchill


End file.
